A round-up of buttery soft vintage movie t-shirts.
Vintage T-Shirt Collective
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Turkish Delight
October 31, 2011 by Jimmy J · 1 Comment
If you want to watch a really scary movie on Halloween check out Midnight Express, the very flick the above promotional relic represents. The film was released in 1978 as an Oliver Stone scribed adaptation of a book by the same name. Author Billy Hayes recounts his real life horrific experience getting caught smuggling hash in Turkey. After being convicted Hayes winds up in a Turkish prison for a four + year sentence during which he and his fellow inmates were terrorized by a sadistic guard.
The classic quote from the movie Airplane! “Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?” was inspired by this film. But Turkey wasn’t laughing, given Midnight’s inaccurate depiction of their country and people damaged their international reputation. Hayes actually loved Turkey – he took issue with the fudging of truth by Stone and felt decades of remorse for the film’s damaging presentation.
In 2007 Billy Hayes returned to Turkey for a conference on democracy and global security organized by the Turkish National Police. The day following his arrival he held a press conference and apologized to the people of Turkey.
Michael J. Fox’s swag has made many cameos on the Collective with a Back to the Future gem, a novelty style The Secret of My Success tee and a more obscure Light of Day t-shirt (starring Joan Jett, wtf?) The comedy genre is nicely rounded out by a Spinal Tap Break Like the Wind 1992 “tour” tee and a classic Caddyshack t-shirt.
And as far as the drama-sports-fantasy genre goes Field of Dreams knocks one in to the corn fields every time.
The Doctor is Out (Of His Mind)
October 30, 2011 by Jimmy J · Leave a Comment
A showcase of buttery soft vintage movie t-shirts.
Shirt #9: Dr. Giggles
Availability: Currently Available on Defunkd (click above)
Released: 1992
Fact: A comic book adaptation was released with the movie featuring many differences from the film because it was based on earlier versions of the script.
Approximate value: $30
Image Courtesy of: Hermosa Vintage
- View the previous Taxi Driver t-shirt.
VintagePimps 60 Auctions Starting at $1
October 29, 2011 by Jimmy J · Leave a Comment
We love it when our favorite vendors break free of the fixed price format and roll the dice with auctions – that’s how eBay was built! Kudos to Mike from VPs who has 60 vintage tees up for grabs starting at .99 cents. Don’t assume these listings will all close beyond your budget – put in bids, many deals are scored during auctions like these. And if auctions aren’t your bag VPs also has 155 tees at 20% off.
Bad Otis Link Part 10: Battle of the Brands
October 27, 2011 by Jimmy J · 2 Comments
Interview with Greg Link aka Bad Otis Link continued from part 9.
Was Screen Stars Your Brand of Choice?
Really, I hated Screen Stars, but they were the budget promo shirt of the time. The only thing worse than a Screen Stars was a Pakistani import that came in bales like hay. Screen Stars were cheap, so we used them if the bands wanted to save money (or in most cases didn’t have any.) Sometimes they were all you could get, too. There were t-shirt shortages in the ’80s. Companies like Disney were hoarding and buying all that the mills could produce.
I could get nice shirts cheaper than Screen Stars, direct from the mills, no labels – so we printed our labels in the shirt. I learned this from Terry at Faden in the 70s. He did it on promo shirts when he was presenting new shirt ideas to bands, record companies etc. I saw Rick Griffen do it too at super tees in the 70s. I thought it was a cool idea. I’m surprised it took till the 90s for others to catch on. I used to hand sign some too, especially for the store stuff. We did some printed labels for the Peppers fan club and for the Goldenvoice crew shirts too. I have some stashed away. It was easier and less expensive to print the labels than have tags made and sewn in like a lot of others were doing. Â They were massive print contractors, running dozens of precision screen printing presses 24/7. they put tags in for OP (Ocean Pacific) Village mews, Levis and all of the others they contract printed and supplied. I got them on and off all through the 80s whenever I could afford to buy them.
I had a lot of artist friends designing at OP – one being Scott Angle, he became art director for OP and Village Mews until he went freelance in the 90s. I would send jobs too big for my shop to them and they would hook me up with shirts in return. Most of those companies folded by the 90s when all of the t-shirt manufacturing left the country. I had to buy minimums of 100 dozen. when I couldn’t afford to buy bulk so I would use whatever I could get, Beltons, Screen Stars etc.  That is also where I got the Gesim french brand used for a lot of the early Chili Peppers stuff. I got a ton of those at a pretty good price because they had tags and they didn’t want to remove them and re-sew. I think when I left the Peppers, Giant used Gold Coast for a while as their first print house. As I recall The Peppers were Giants’ first band to merchandise. Giant is Warner Bros. run by Peter Lubin, or was when I was around.
My favorite 50/50 was the Beltons, much nicer than Screen Stars. Don’t get me wrong, I printed thousands on Screen Stars. I tried to keep nicer stuff in my stores though and would always print extras on nice shirts. I would even buy shirts at department stores even when they had sales, sometime 3 shirts for 5 bucks. JC Penny, Sears. We would also use the cool blank t-shirts that I bought used by the pound. Those we would custom print and do art on for the stores and for screen set ups. They all came out pretty cool.
- Bad Otis dishes more details in Part 11.
Wanna Join Our Free Beta Seller Program?
October 26, 2011 by Jimmy J · Leave a Comment
Big thanks to our first round of beta sellers who helped us identify the kinks in our new system. Now we’re seeking new vendors to join in on the fun. Prerequisites are few: a little experience selling vintage tees online, a lot of honesty and you avoid repros like the plague. If this sounds like you why not make use of our system? It’s FREE to list and FREE to sell! There’s zero fees to list, no store fees and we don’t take any sort of commission.
Did we mention it’s 100% FREE?
Whether you’re an active vendor looking to branch out or a retired seller/collector with a few tees to unload, the Collective is the perfect place to list your goods. Just register, confirm your account and click the “Sell” tab to submit a request.
We also invite every registered user to show-off their most cherished tees by submitting them to our “show” section. As long as you’re a registered user this feature is open to everyone. Snap a few pics of your prized poly-cotton and immortalize it on Defunkd!
Please use the comments section of this page should you experience any bugs or have any questions. Thanks for being a part of the Collective.